We are now in Laos! After an 18 hour journey consisting of a sleeper train that btroke down twice and caight on fire (a bit), changing to another train that looked like it had been built in the 1930's, a Tuk Tuk who wanted to rip us off a every turn, a stall next to immigration that took perfect digital photos of you and printed them out on the most sophistacated piece of technology even though the stall itself was made of corrugated iron andf gave you drinks in plastic bags, a bus rammed so full of people you knew the intimate anatomy of the person you were standing next to by the time you got off, an immigration centre to get a visa, another taxi to Vientiane and then to the guesthouse. It was some journey! I'm exhausted just writing it down. Vientiane was really nice. Very laid back and quiet in comparison to Bangkok. We ate dinner by the Mekong river in makeshift restaurants surrounded by fairy lights. Did some sightseeing and some drinking. Jim keeps reminding me that Beer Lao (50p for 1 1/3 pints) is the cheapest drinking he will ever do so he needs to get a lot of it before we leave Laos. x x x